Wealthy UP family parades Dalit woman naked

A middle-aged Dalit woman was brazenly paraded naked in Chandwapur village of Uttar Pradesh’s Lakhimpur Kheri district on Saturday. An affluent Dalit family put Ram Pyari, 45, through this public humiliation as they believed her husband, Darbari Lal, had helped their daughter Jayanti elope. Jayanti, a divorcee, had been living with her parents for the past two years. She had eloped with Mannu, a youth from the village. SP Amit Chandra confirmed the incident and said five youth from the family have been arrested. “ It was a well- planned crime. While Haridwari Lal, Jayanti’s father, was registering a complaint against Darbadi Lal at Isanagar police station, his family members were torturing Ram Pyari,” he said. “They had kidnapped and locked her in their house on Friday night. However, they paraded her naked the next morning when she couldn’t give any clue about Jayanti’s whereabouts,” he further said. Ram Pyari later told the police that out of the 500 in the village no one had dared to intervene to save her. “They abducted and locked me in a room. But they got furious when I told them that I had no idea about where Jayanti was and who she had eloped with. So they dragged me into the street and ripped off my clothes. They also groped and beat me with batons and belts,” she told the police. The incident is gradually taking on political hues with Iqbal Ahmed Khan, Congress district president, saying his party will not sit by and allow such injustice to take place. “The victim is a poor Dalit woman while the accused are wealthy Dalits with political links… Recently, a girl was raped and killed in a police station in the same district. These incidents took place in a state where the CM herself is a Dalit woman. We will raise the issue of rising crimes against women,” Khan said.